Acatlo (MH886v)

Acatlo (MH886v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Acatlo (perhaps “Bat Falcon”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a vertical reed or cane (acatl) with two leaves. It provides the phonetic indicator that the name starts with Aca-. The other element is a bird, probably a tlotli, a falcon-like raptor. The bird is shown in profile, facing toward the viewer’s right, with its wings slightly lifted. It provides the phonetic indication that the name ends in -tlo. It also has a semantic value, referring to a bird that is falcon-like.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Other examples of the tlotli appear below. As of March 2025, we have no other examples of the Acatlo personal name glyph.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

po. acatlo

Gloss Normalization: 

Pedro Acatlo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Birds
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

cañas, plantas, pájaros, rapaces, halcones, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

acatlo, a bat falcon, and a person’s name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acatlo
aca(tl), a reed or cane, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acatl
tlo(tli), a falcon-like raptor (bird), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlotli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Halcón Murciélago

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 886v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=845&st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tlotli (MH827r)

Tlocalcatl (MH729r)

Tlopan (MH755v)